Hurley Town Board backs proposal to name Route 375 after Levon Helm

HURLEY -- The Town Board has thrown support behind naming the 2.92-mile long state Route 375 running through Hurley and Woodstock in honor of the late musician Levon Helm.

The resolution was approved during a meeting Monday, with Councilman John Gill saying the proposal is appropriate because Helm was closely tied to both towns in bringing music to local audiences. He noted the free concerts at Gill Farms along U.S. Route 209 were Helm's way of recognizing local support.

"It was him giving back to the community," Gill said. "It was a free show for everyone to come and see. What it was building up to was he wanted to do a big show that would benefit all the growers in the area, the local farms, and it was starting to come together and then his untimely death took that away."

Helm, a Woodstock resident, died April 19, 2012, at age 71 from throat cancer. While he had gained fame with The Band, it was the Midnight Rambles featuring star-studded guest performers in recent years at his home studio that put him a revered status that crossed generations.

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Hurley town Supervisor Gary Bellows said the proposal was made by state Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, to designate the road as Levon Helm Memorial Boulevard.

"The assemblyman asked if the town of Hurley was willing to support a bill that was in the (state) Assembly and the Senate," Bellows said.

Gill said he met Helm during the mid 1980s when the musician was driving through the farm's fields initially without permission.

"He was just riding around the farm one day and I was like 'who's this?'" he said. "I just pulled up to see who it was and I looked in the car and all of a sudden it hits me who it is. He loved coming down in his car and driving around in the fields."

Gill said it was about another dozen years before Helm did the first of about six concerts at the farm.

"The first year it was just impromptu with a little tent next to the road stand and maybe 200 people," he said. "The year after that we had a bigger tent and a bunch of people. For two years after that it got bigger and I built a stage."

Gill noted there is an irony in naming a paved highway after someone who had a deep appreciation for dirt paths.

"Like an old cobblestone road someplace, that would be Levon," he said. "But Kevin came up with this idea and I think it's a nice idea."